Coyotes Slash Ticket Prices

Seeing as the eyes of the hockey world will (for perhaps the first time ever) be fixated on Glendale Arena when the Phoenix Coyotes take to the ice this year, the organization has made the decision to slash ticket prices for opening night. This is in definite reaction to this new amount of interest in the club since the attempted purchase of the team by Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie, who wanted to move the team to Hamilton.

The NHL has done all it can to keep the team in Phoenix, despite the poor attendance and success of the franchise. A move to a Canadian city seemed the best choice for the struggling team, but so far it has not happened.

Now I hate to speculate, but I believe that this ticket price reduction was strongly encouraged by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. How bad would he look if the franchise he is fighting so hard to save had an attendance of only ten or twelve thousand on opening night itself.

Now when I say the tickets have been dropped, what I really mean is it’s a pure fire sale. Lower bowl tickets cost just $25 (which would have you on the street listening to the game on the radio in Toronto) while upper bowl seats are going for $15. What is an obvious attempt to fill the stands and make hockey fans feel that Bettman made the right decision may not do enough though, as hockey in Arizona is in a terrible state.